High-school basketball: Girls work way back from knee injuries

Friday

Jan 25, 2013 at 12:01 AMJan 25, 2013 at 9:46 AM

Hannah Scipio has no trouble reciting the details of that awful night in March when the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee snapped like a twig. Scipio, a 5-foot-4 point guard for New Albany, was dribbling along the sideline during a Division I district semifinal, with Pickerington North guard Taylor Jones pressing her every step of the way.

Mark Znidar, The Columbus Dispatch

Hannah Scipio has no trouble reciting the details of that awful night in March when the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee snapped like a twig.

Scipio, a 5-foot-4 point guard for New Albany, was dribbling along the sideline during a Division I district semifinal, with Pickerington North guard Taylor Jones pressing her every step of the way.

Watching from the stands was University of Akron assistant coach Melissa Jackson, whose team had received a commitment from Scipio months before.

“I was about to go behind my back with the ball and my knee just gave out,” Scipio said. “I knew it was bad; I just didn’t know how bad. I’ve had knees that were hyperextended a couple of times, but I was able to come back. I knew this time it was different.”

After being helped off the floor, Scipio retreated to a hallway, where she did what every competitor would do.

“I punched a table,” she said. “I remember Coach Jackson telling me to work my butt off to get back for my senior year. We could have won the game, too.”

The diagnosis was a complete tear of the ACL and six months of laborious rehabilitation. There would be no AAU basketball in the summer for Scipio; her return had to wait until a Dec. 4 game against Teays Valley.

“My heart was absolutely pounding that game,” Scipio said. “I just said everything would be OK. I didn’t try anything too outrageous.”

Scipio is one of three stars from central Ohio on the comeback trail from the most dreaded of all injuries for girls basketball players.

Forward Brooke Zwayer of Olentangy suffered a torn ACL in her left knee playing for the Capital City Comets AAU team in July, and Northland center Jasmine Weatherspoon suffered a torn right ACL while playing in an open gym on June 10.

Zwayer and Scipio have returned to full speed. Weatherspoon was told by her doctor on Wednesday that she can resume practice without contact. Coach Dean Washington hopes she can play in a game in two to three week.sOlentangy coach John Feasel remembers Zwayer’s father, Mark, calling from a tournament in Tennessee with the bad news about Brooke.

“You never want that call, especially about a three-year letter winner,” Feasel said. “We always talk about the next player up, and that’s what got us through not having Brooke in November and December. She has been so good about the rehabilitation — everything.”

To a point, it helped Brooke that her father had the same injury while playing football in high school. She was injured while landing awkwardly after catching a high pass, and also tore meniscus cartilage in the knee.

“I never felt pain like that,” she said. “My dad told me how it would feel coming back, but the surgery and rehabilitation are a lot different now than back then.”

Many sports-medicine experts believe that girls basketball players are more prone than boys to suffer torn knee ligaments in part because they have a wider pelvis, which causes a larger angle at which the femur (upper leg bone) meets the tibia (lower leg bone). That increased angle places more stress on the knee joint.In Scipio’s surgery, Dr. Randy Wroble took a piece of her hamstring and reconstructed a new ligament. She was on crutches for three to four weeks.

“It was weird going to games during the summer and just watching,” Zwayer said. “It was hard work coming back; I had my doubts. I was in a depression mode. Then I talked to people who had the surgery and said they came back 100 percent. That helped.”

It also helped her psyche that Malone, a Division II college, kept its commitment of a full scholarship.

Zwayer wears a bulky black brace on the knee and is not yet 100 percent because of a lack of endurance and overall strength. She returned Dec.?21 against New Albany.

“But the knee is sore only for about five minutes after games,” she said.

Scipio’s comeback was delayed after she developed an infection in the surgical incision, which came from swimming in Buckeye Lake.

“I could have lost a leg,” she said. “My parents (Randy and Stephanie) and stepfather (Jamie Puryear) have been there for me every step. Akron also stuck with me. That gave me a lot of confidence. But I did think, ‘What if I can’t come back?’ That scared me.”

Scipio is required only to wear a thin elastic brace on the knee.

Weatherspoon, a 6-2 center, missed summer basketball with the AAU Ohio Glory, as well as volleyball season in the fall.

“I couldn’t put weight on the knee, but I was in denial when I got hurt,” Weatherspoon said. “I didn’t want to think torn ligament.”

There is precious little time for Weatherspoon to prove to colleges that she can return to the same level. Hampton and Wright State have offered her a scholarship.

“You always wonder what colleges think,” she said.

Washington said everything is in the doctor’s hands.

“Until you play that first game and know the knee is sound, you are unsure,” he said. “We’d like to get Jasmine back for a few games before the tournament, but that’s not our call as coaches. The frustrating part is that East Carolina, Houston and Clemson have called us, but right now those are only calls.”

mznidar@dispatch.com

@MarkZnidar

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